Curiouser and Curiouser
by Simply Rexene
Summary: This curious tale will keep you on your toes with plenty of drama, suspense, and all those "aww" moments that we love to have.


**Curiouser and Curiouser**

 _Chapter One_

"Mom, I just looked up in the attic for an hour and I couldn't find the box with your wedding dress. Do you know where it is?" my boots thudded on the stairs as I headed down to the kitchen.

"Oh! I didn't know you were looking for my dress, dear..." she smiled warmly at me, setting aside the delicious looking cookie dough she'd been mixing and wiping her hands off on her apron. "I guess now is as good a time as any. See, when I heard that you'd gotten engaged to Ender, I... Well, I guess I got a little hopeful that you'd want to wear my dress."

I laughed, sitting down at the breakfast bar across from her and nodding, "Damn straight I do! Your wedding dress was gorgeous, Mom. Besides... I know it would make Dad so incredibly proud to see me in your dress." Tears started to spring up in my eyes a little as I thought about Dad, though you'd think after five years the tears would stop.

"Exactly," she beamed, "But as you know, you're about five inches shorter than I was when I got married, and about twenty pounds lighter. Sooo... I sort of took it upon myself to get it altered to fit your size and height."

I hated being so short, but it was as much a blessing as it was a curse. It made watching animated kid's movies in the theater a lot less awkward. "So... so your dress will fit me?"

"Well, it might need some final adjustments to fit your body perfectly... But you won't drown in it anymore. I have it hanging in the closet in your old bedroom if you want to try it on."

I couldn't contain my excitement as I ran upstairs, letting out a high pitched squeal as I started stripping my clothes off before I even got up there. After I'd gotten over the excitement of Ender asking me to marry him, all I could think about was wearing Mom's dress. I couldn't believe it was actually going to happen!

"Well that was quick," Mom chuckled, appearing in the doorway while I was already pulling the dress over my head.

"Come zip me!" I waved her over, getting lost in all the tulle.

She helped me pull the dress down where it should be and then zipped me up, turning me to face the full length mirror on my closet door. "You look so beautiful, Rosaline..."

I cringed a little as she called me by my full name, but she was the only person I'd allow to say it. "First, my name is Roe," I laughed, letting the tears start to roll down my face as I stared at myself in the gorgeous dress. "Second... I've got to say it because Dad isn't here to. I... I look just like you, Mom."

That got her crying instantly, but they were happy tears just like mine. "I can't believe you're getting married... _My baby_. ...I feel so old!"

I just snorted and pulled her into a hug, riding out our little emotional moment before letting her go and stepping back to admire myself in the mirror. "Can we keep it here for now? If I take it home, Ender is going to snoop for it for sure."

"Of course. But you know he's going to break down when he sees you in that dress," she grinned, reaching up to pull the zipper back down. "Everyone will. Even your father."

"I know... I know he'll be watching over us," I smiled, sniffling a little. "I just wish he could be there."

She nodded, sitting down on my old bed. "It'll be five years next week. And it never gets easier."

I hung the dress back up on it's hanger and sat down next to her, still in just my bra and underwear. "I'm sorry if my moving out has made this harder on you, Mom. It can't be fun being all alone in this house."

"Oh, I understand, honey... You're an adult, and you need to be able to live your life without worrying about me all the time. It's completely reasonable that you want to live with Ender. I'll be okay here. I promise."

"I love you, Mom..." I sighed, resting my head on her shoulder. Mom and I have been best friends ever since I could talk. "I'm always just a phonecall away. But I do have to get going. I'm meeting my bridal party to pick out their dresses today."

She nodded as I stood up, starting to put the dress back into it's garment bag. "Maybe get dressed first?" she suggested, motioning to the fact that I was still in my underwear.

"Right," I laughed, "I think I left half my outfit on the stairs while I was running up here."

"I'll go find it for you. And I've got some cookies for you to take home to Ender. I know how much he loves them."

"Awesome! He'll be so happy when he gets home from work."

Leaving Mom's house was always an ordeal, but I finally made it out with just enough time to meet the girls at the bridal shop. We were getting closer and closer to the wedding date, and I was so incredibly excited to pick out their dresses.

...

By the time they were finished trying on dresses, I was absolutely exhausted. I swear, every time I closed my eyes I had visions of bright pink taffeta burned into my brain.

"Ender? You home?" I called out, setting my keys down on the dining room table. I hadn't seen his car in the parking garage, but our building was pretty big and I couldn't always discern which generic black sedan was his.

I didn't hear an answer, so I assumed I was alone and went into the kitchen to see if he'd left me a note. If one of us wasn't going to be home, we usually left a note on the fridge for the other. And just like usual, I found a piece of paper taped to the fridge.

 _Roe,_

 _My asshole friends surprised me with a bachelor party last second. Ambushed me when I got home from work. I'm guessing I'll be out late, though I'll try to get home as soon as they'll let me. Love you babe, have a good night!_

 _-Ender_

It was cute how he always signed with his name, like I might somehow think that a stranger broke into the house and left a note for me. Besides, his handwriting was so terrible that it couldn't possible be mistaken for anybody else's.

Ender and I met four years ago at a party one of his friends threw. I'm not usually much of a social butterfly, but I got dragged there by my friends with the specific purpose of setting me up with some other guy. After finding out that he was a sleezeball, I ran into Ender while trying to escape. We started talking and just... hit it off. I fell in love with him almost immediately.

Then a couple months ago we were out at dinner for my 24th birthday and... well, you get it, right? He pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes. In fact, we couldn't even wait to have the wedding. We gave ourselves three months to get the whole thing planned, and while it's been super difficult, I couldn't be more excited.

It's funny, too, because Ender really wasn't the type of guy I ever thought I'd like. He's your typical jock type, super strong and athletic and very self confident. I've never really been a confident person, but he's been helping me a lot with that. He just makes me feel good about myself.

"Well... I suppose it's just me tonight," I sighed, grabbing a book and laying down on the couch. I'd been wanting to get a dog for a long time now, and being alone for the night just made me want a furry companion even more.

I cracked open my book, an older and well-loved one that I would re-read every so often. It was a book on the legend of the Keyblade Wars, an event that was rumored to have happened many centuries ago. I knew it was a bunch of hooey, but the story was just so interesting. Keyblades, warriors, other worlds... It had information on a bunch of really cool stuff.

" _In ancient times, people believed that light was a gift from an unseen land by the name of Kingdom Hearts. But Kingdom Hearts was safeguarded by its counterpart, the χ-blade. Warriors vied for that precious light, thus beginning the "Keyblade War". The violent clash shattered the χ-blade into twenty pieces—seven of light and thirteen of darkness. And only the real Kingdom Hearts was swallowed by the darkness, never to surface again._ "

So apparently our world, Traverse Town, used to be connected to many others, back when the World was filled with light. But after the Keyblade Wars, the world became shrouded in darkness. However, the light from the hearts of children kept the darkness at bay, but it wasn't enough to keep the worlds from separating. The remaining keyblade wielders vied to keep the worlds safe from any further destruction, becoming guardians of the World order. I guess keyblades became known both as a weapon of chaos and destruction, but also as the weapon that would save the World.

I didn't really believe any of it... it was complete bullshit to think that other worlds existed besides our own, and that they were once all connected. But it did give me a feeling of hope that maybe... just maybe, there was something else out there.

...

It wasn't long before I had some dinner and went to bed. I never thought that all of the wedding planning could be so tiring, but I was just low on energy. I hated going to bed without Ender there, but I could barely keep my eyes open.

" _I'm so sorry, baby..._ "

The whisper that cut through my deep sleep was so soft that I just barely heard him as I felt his arms wrap around me. I blinked a little in my sleepy confusion, wondering what he was sorry for, but my tired mind just assumed that it was for coming home so late at night. But now that he was home, I snuggled back against him and allowed myself to fall into a deep and comfortable sleep.

 _Skritch. Skritch skritch._

My eyes fluttered open as an odd scratching sound hit my ears. It must have been a couple of hours later, because I didn't feel Ender's arms around me anymore. He could only cuddle me for about an hour before his arms would go numb and he'd roll onto his back. ...But what was that skritching noise? It sounded like someone was scratching our bedroom door over and over.

"End...? What's that noise?" I turned over, my eyes barely adjusting in the pitch black darkness of the room.

But instead of finding Ender fast asleep, I was met with the yellow, glowing eyes of some kind of little creature of darkness. My eyes scanned over the beady-eyed being, and I recognized it from another one of my books. It was a heartless, something that I'd heard of, but never seen before. They usually dwelled in dark places, away from the people of Traverse Town.

The small shadowed creature sat on top of Ender as he slept. The only thing illuminating them was the red and purple glow of the heart rising from Ender's chest, which the heartless was grabbing at like a wild animal.

"Get off of him!" I screeched, my voice cracking as I whacked at the creature. My hand went completely through it's body, like it was nothing more than a ghost. "Stop!" I yelled again, my throat hoarse from sleeping.

Ender remained motionless while the heartless reached down and grabbed his heart, suddenly disappearing in a puff of black smoke.

"Ender... Ender, wake up!" I shook him, forcing his eyes to flutter open as his body was surrounded with tendrils of the same black smoke.

"Roe? What...?"

I was an absolute mess as I tried to explain, "Oh my God... Ender, it... it took your heart! There was a heartless here and it stole your heart!"

"...What?" he mumbled, trying to sit up and failing. He seemed weak... and his body was beginning to fade into transparency. "Roe... I'm disappearing..."

"No, no, no, no, no..." I muttered, grabbing onto him and refusing to let go. The scratching at the door was becoming frenzied and insistent, like something was trying to claw down the door. "Ender, baby, you can't leave me. I need you. Don't go..."

"I'm so sorry, Roe," he whispered, his voice hitching a little as tears began to roll down his face. He was becoming completely enveloped by the darkness now. "I never meant to..."

I held onto him for dear life, my long brown hair sticking to the tears on my cheeks as I tried to keep him from being taken. "Meant to what? What are you talking about?" I asked him, cradling his cheek in my hand. "I love you so much, Ender... please don't go..."

"Goodbye, Roe... I love..."

 _Thud._

I fell flat on the bed as Ender completely disappeared, leaving me all alone with whatever was scratching at my door. My own heart felt like it had been torn in half, and I had a rage building inside of me that was incomparable to anything else I'd ever felt before.

I stood up and faced the door, chest heaving as I watched it shake and rumble with each scratch. The more angry I felt, the louder the scratching seemed to grow.

And then suddenly the door burst open, an entire horde of heartless rushing into the room along with a tall man wearing a dark black hood that covered his face. "You need to get out of here. This entire building is about to be overrun with heartless," he warned me in a rather ominous voice, picking off some of the creatures as they rushed for me with these guns that seemed to shoot arrows.

I stepped back a few paces, but kept my eyes locked on the heartless as my need for revenge against them began to grow stronger. "They took his heart..."

"Then he's probably already a Dusk. We need to go; now!" the man yelled, shooting off a few more of the heartless.

"No!" I screamed, my voice reaching a new octave, "I'm not leaving! I need to get Ender back!"

The cloaked man groaned and I could almost feel him rolling his eyes, though I couldn't see it. "You're turning into a magnet for the heartless... the darkness is going to consume you if you let it."

I looked down to see the same tendrils of dark smoke rolling from my fingertips. I looked up at him wildly, my eyes burning into him. "Let it! These bastards need to die! Why can't I hurt them?!" I screeched, punching at a few of the heartless in a feeble attempt that was getting me nowhere.

"They only respond to-"

His sentence was cut off as I felt a gust of wind flow through me and something appear in the grip of my right hand. "What...?" I glanced down to see what looked like a giant key in the palm of my hand. "Is this... a keyblade?"

"Holy shit..." the man stepped away from me as heartless started to pour into the room. "You're on your own!"

"Wait! Don't-!" I struggled with a heartless as it leapt towards me. But when I hit it with the keyblade, it let out an angry hiss and disappeared. "The keyblade... it..." Upon realizing that I could kill them with this odd blade, I just started to slash at everything. I could see more swirls of darkness rising from my body, because my rage only built up stronger as I took out heartless after heartless.

But they just kept coming, and I wasn't able to keep them at bay. They were swarming me, enveloping me in complete darkness. The ones I could pick off were just replaced by others.

The last thing I remember seeing was my heart rising into the swarm. Then? Darkness.

...

 **Author's Note:** Now I know that everybody hates an OC story... But please give it a shot? I've tried incredibly hard to make them decent characters, and I really hope that I've succeeded. Of course, they'll develop even more as the story continues. And you'll start seeing some familiar faces very soon!

I love you guys and thanks for reading! I might try to roll out some updates for older stories of mine here in a minute.

 _Simply Rexene_


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